Losers Bracket

by Chris Crutcher

Overview

When a family argument turns into an urgent hunt for a missing child, seventeen-year-old Annie Boots must do everything in her power to bring her nephew home safely. Chris Crutcher, the acclaimed and bestselling author of Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, shares a provocative story about family, loss, and loyalty that is perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds and Laurie Halse Anderson. The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books called Losers Bracket “Genuine and affecting.” 

When it comes to family, Annie is in the losers bracket. While her foster parents are great (mostly), her birth family would not have been her first pick. And no matter how many times Annie tries to write them out of her life, she always gets sucked back into their drama. Love is like that.

But when a family argument breaks out at Annie’s swim meet and her nephew goes missing, Annie might be the only one who can get him back. With help from her friends, her foster brother, and her social service worker, Annie puts the pieces of the puzzle together, determined to find her nephew and finally get him into a safe home.

Award-winning author Chris Crutcher’s books are strikingly authentic and unflinchingly honest. Losers Bracket is by turns gripping, heartbreaking, hopeful, and devastating, and hits the sweet spot for fans of Andrew Smith and Marieke Nijkamp.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062220066
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/03/2018
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Chris Crutcher has written nine critically acclaimed novels, an autobiography, and two collections of short stories. Drawing on his experience as a family therapist and child protection specialist, Crutcher writes honestly about real issues facing teenagers today: making it through school, competing in sports, handling rejection and failure, and dealing with parents. He has won three lifetime achievement awards for the body of his work: the Margaret A. Edwards Award, the ALAN Award, and the NCTE National Intellectual Freedom Award. Chris Crutcher lives in Spokane, Washington.

Editorial Reviews

02/19/2018
Annie Boots, a skilled hoops player, feels like she lost the biological family lottery. Her mother is an addict, her father is absent, and her older sister is a 19-year-old mother, with no means of support and a troubled five-year-old son named Frankie. Where Annie did luck out is in foster care, having been placed with a well-to-do family. But even that situation is fraught because Pop, a control freak, is mostly interested in Annie for the reflected glory that her athletic accomplishments bring, and Annie continually defies him by refusing to give up on her biological relatives. Then Frankie goes missing, and the story veers toward solving the mystery of his disappearance. Crutcher, whose background as a mental health counselor has long informed his fiction, occasionally lets his characters slip into psychobabble (one teen refers to Frankie’s “maladaptive behaviors”). Even so, his expertise gives the narrative, about the harsh realities of what happens when kids are failed by both their parents and the state, its authenticity. Ages 14–up. Agency: Darhansoff & Verrill. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Crutcher’s...expertise gives the narrative, about the harsh realities of what happens when kids are failed by both their parents and the state, its authenticity.” — Publishers Weekly

“Annie’s voice is strong and often bracing...An appealing narrative voice and fast-moving plot that will engage readers from the first page.” — School Library Journal

“Crutcher tells a story that is genuine and affecting in its engagement with complications within the foster care system. ...a critique of the status quo of social services, but this novel is also effective in portraying how truly messy it all can be.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“This novel is as engaging as it is heartbreaking. Annie’s story is poignant and hopeful, with dashes of sass, humor, and devastation. ...This is a recommendation read for fans of Andrew Smith, Marieke Nijkamp...[and] those who enjoy riveting realistic fiction.” — Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

From the Publisher

Crutcher tells a story that is genuine and affecting in its engagement with complications within the foster care system. ...a critique of the status quo of social services, but this novel is also effective in portraying how truly messy it all can be.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

03/01/2018
Gr 8 Up—The last time Annie Boots was removed from her biological mother's care it seemed pretty final—even supervised visits were off the table. A talented student athlete, tough-talking Annie insists on spreading herself thin playing up the loser's bracket in local basketball tournaments, and joining sports she's not even interested in, in hopes of creating as many opportunities as possible for her bio mom and sister to come see her on neutral ground. This strains her relationship with her straitlaced foster family, and yields mixed results. When Annie's nephew goes missing at one of her swim meets, the systems that have defined Annie and her sister's life—bio families, foster families, social services, law enforcement, and the kindness of strangers—slowly grind together to find the boy, and figure out what kind of home he'll come home to. Annie's voice is strong and often bracing, her observations about her both of her families range from cruel to tender, sometimes in the same paragraph. Crutcher has a lot of messages to send about nature verses nurture, and about the system as a whole, some of which are presented organically, others dropped into awkward soliloquies. The plot takes some wild and soapy twists and turns near the end, but the resolution is realistically uneasy and complex. VERDICT An appealing narrative voice and fast-moving plot that will engage readers from the first page.—Beth McIntyre, Madison Public Library, WI

School Library Journal

2018-02-05
Annie Boots, a talented white teen athlete in long-term foster care, employs an innovative strategy to circumvent an order prohibiting contact with her birth family.The Howard family (Pop, Momma, and son, Marvin) meet Annie's needs, but she refuses to sever contact with her half sister, Sheila, and their biological mother, Nancy. Annie knows they're violent drug abusers but hopes to at least help protect Sheila's disturbed 5-year-old son. She recalls her own miserable early years of repeatedly being removed from, then returned to, Nancy's custody, skilled as she was at cheating on drug tests. The title references Annie's practice of combining basketball tournaments with secret birth-family encounters, deliberately losing early games so that more must be played in order for the team to advance. Physical fitness, good looks, and intelligence signal worth in the story, while Annie's mother and half sister are portrayed as sullen, slovenly, and criminally inclined, repeatedly betraying the children who trust them. One-dimensional characters deliver didactic pronouncements, among them Annie's social worker—mood set to righteous indignation—who rails at a broken child protection system, its failures vaguely attributed to generations of irresponsible parents and incompetent dupes. At a time of growing income inequality and widespread drug addiction, the judgments rendered here appear harsh and simplistic.A portrait of a troubled family that falls short. (Fiction.14-18)

Kirkus Reviews

This novel is as engaging as it is heartbreaking. Annie’s story is poignant and hopeful, with dashes of sass, humor, and devastation. ...This is a recommendation read for fans of Andrew Smith, Marieke Nijkamp...[and] those who enjoy riveting realistic fiction.

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

Crutcher tells a story that is genuine and affecting in its engagement with complications within the foster care system. ...a critique of the status quo of social services, but this novel is also effective in portraying how truly messy it all can be.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Crutcher tells a story that is genuine and affecting in its engagement with complications within the foster care system. ...a critique of the status quo of social services, but this novel is also effective in portraying how truly messy it all can be.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Chris Crutcher is well known as a chronicler of gritty stories for teens, and this audiobook is no exception. Tara Sands is the perfect narrator for this audiobook. Annie has been in and out of foster care her whole life, and though she has now been with a stable foster family for a number of years, she still craves interactions with her unpredictable birth family. Sands gives Annie a voice that is wry and sarcastic with a subtle undertone of naïveté. She voices the supporting characters equally well. The audiobook’s title refers to Annie’s penchant for intentionally losing basketball games early in the season so that her team will play more games, since sporting events are where she is able to see her birth family. S.P. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2018 - AudioFile

Chris Crutcher is well known as a chronicler of gritty stories for teens, and this audiobook is no exception. Tara Sands is the perfect narrator for this audiobook. Annie has been in and out of foster care her whole life, and though she has now been with a stable foster family for a number of years, she still craves interactions with her unpredictable birth family. Sands gives Annie a voice that is wry and sarcastic with a subtle undertone of naïveté. She voices the supporting characters equally well. The audiobook’s title refers to Annie’s penchant for intentionally losing basketball games early in the season so that her team will play more games, since sporting events are where she is able to see her birth family. S.P. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2018 - AudioFile